April 24, 2012

Starbucks to Market Verismo Brewers in China

Starbucks will introduce instant dairy products worldwide, and bring its Verismo single-serve brewer to China next year as it triples stores there. Starbucks in March said it will start selling the Verismo, a machine to make brewed coffee and espresso-based beverages, in the U.S. this year, and it was only a matter of time before it announced it's worldwide intentions.

Starbucks, based in Seattle, plans to triple outlets to more than 1,500 by 2015 in China to help it grow outside the U.S. Single-serve beverages are the coffee industry’s fastest-growing segment, and global coffee consumption will grow about 1.5 percent this year. The increase in demand will be driven by countries including Russia, China, Indonesia, India and coffee-producing countries.

Oh and the kicker - Via is now a $300 million business globally. Wild. We do like Via but had no idea it would grow to be that big in a few years. Starbucks also plans to introduce Refreshers, energy drinks made with fruit juice and green-coffee extract, in China this summer.

AO: Personally, I will never give Keurig or Green Mountain another read moreManuel : I'm on the second machine and it is doing the read moreAO: I just happened to find the following on a coffee read moreMelanie McReynolds: Keurig just lost another customer. They had a great concept read moreAO: I would be curious to see how much Kona coffee read more